Friday, July 6th: ‘A King of Infinite Space’

American rock collides with Shakespeare in the SummerStage commissioned, theatrical concert event, A King of Infinite Space.

Noted playwright Mando Alvarado’s modern spin on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet places the plot in the Lower East Side, Manhattan for a more relatable take on the quintessential tale of struggling family dynamics, power, and revenge. The production breaks away from Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English by using modern language and costuming while still portraying the core theme and plot of the original play. Fusing the music and themes from American rock icon Pearl Jam’s ground-breaking album, 10, with a gritty Lower East Side dynamic, this concert event relates Shakespeare’s 17th century literature to 21st century New York City.

Director Jerry Ruiz and his design team craft a stream-lined, bare bones yet theatrical storytelling approach that conveys this timeless story to a contemporary audience with clarity, simplicity and a modern sensibility.